Seoul Drum Festival Appendix A

Brett sent me this picture of the riot police. There are more in the background but it doesn't show the crazy amount of them there. I watched a line march by of about 4 across and 200 deep! They were chanting like they were in the military, too; raising there helmets and shields, shouting. I think I mentioned before that all Korean men are required to go into the military when they are my age for 2 years. Fighter jets fly by my classroom almost everyday.

Reid brought up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or Eastern Garbage Patch. I wish we could put all the money and manpower devoted to the military toward making the world a better place. Things are not looking good for good old planet Earth.

Life goes on... for now.

Seoul Drum Festival

The drum festival was a beautiful experience. I met up with two new good friends, Brett and Coreen, a couple of awesome Canadians that I spent most of the night with. I was waiting for Jesse, Tiffany and Renae to get there and eventually they showed up and we had a blast.


Did I mention I have seen the craziest spiders in Korea? I have not moved too close to any of them because of an irrational fear that the one I am looking at will turn out to be a Korean jumping spider but it doesn't keep me from taking pictures. I was camera-less when I came across the nastiest one I have seen so far. This was early in the day before I boarded the subway on the way to the festival.

I got out of the subway near the World Cup Stadium where I was surrounded by SWAT team members. I would say about 400 cops, all in full gear, were marching around, some were just chillin'. I was too scared to snap a pick after I heard about some crazy riot police incidents in Korea. Apparently, they have messed some people up and killed some people in the middle of peaceful protests. I have not looked it up yet. Later, Brett told me he took some pictures and I am waiting on him to send them. He told me that there was a protest of about 50 workers going on and that is what attracted so many riot-geared five-o. Scary.

They had free shuttles to the show but I couldn't find them among the prison buses (later, I found out they didn't start till 5pm) so I had a nice long walk to the park it was being held at. I knew I was close. People pointed me in the general direction until I made it. I ended up seeing some nice scenery.


I walked across this bridge 3 times, figuring out which way I needed to go. It was a beautiful place to stall.


I saw a rollerskating team at the stadium and happened to end up behind them after getting a little lost. I figured they were probably going the right way but I didn't ask till we were almost there. One of the awesome things about Korea if you are a roller skater, bicyclist, or skater (or wheelchairer, i guess) are the ramps they have on the stairs:


It would be so much easier if they were wearing their roller blades! I know one day I am going to make trouble for myself on one of these sets of stairs.



Right before going down the steps I snapped this photo. All of the bridges are individually special looking; most of the buildings are not. I said it in a previous blog entry that the buildings would be so ugly if they weren't uniformed and scattered close together but I think, especially against the water they look atrocious.

When I got down to the park I saw another crazy spider:


Sorry for the poor quality but I am not sticking around something that looks like that and asking it to pose and smile; that's what nature photographers are for...

Speaking of nature photography, just after the spider, I snapped this one and thought of a career change, then I thought of the spider again... I'll stick to teaching for now.


But I am still really happy about this one! I once thought dragonflies only have a lifespan of 24 hours. Tis a common misconception. I don't know where I got the idea from but I am not the only one who pulled it from somewhere. Some adults do only live for 4 weeks or so (some a lot longer) but I still thought it was beautiful to see one relax and not move at all. For a couple minutes I stared at it and thought about that. Then it flew away.



The dragonfly was outside a campground that I thought was the festival at first. It reminded me of Tent State


The show didn't start till late, but there was an early preview performance on a small stage.

The lady with the trumpet rocks it. It sounds more like a Rusted sweet voice singing in a high pitch. I loved it. They went on for longer than and hour, non-stop.

There was also a drum circle and tents for all of the performers. I recieved some free cds and dvds.

To my surprise, I passed the main stage when I turned the corner of the last tent.

How did I not see this before?

I made friends with a Korean guy, whose job it was to give out free water. He let me use his phone.



I saw this scene sometime after I met Brett and Coreen.





The toilets are nicer than indoor toilets; brought in on trailers and more than enough for everyone. Right as I was taking the picture a woman rode by on her bike... (I flashed a lady right outside of the bathroom. - hahahaha)



GS 25 is a convenient store. They have so much goodness at this traveling location. Hot water for making ramen noodles, cold drinks in refrigerators, hot coffee and tea drinks in hotterators, and some glowing things I tried to do some fire spinning with. I took this picture to remind myself of the hotterators that I tried to get a cold coffee drink from.



The show was amazing. An all woman's group kicked ass, an all blind group ripped it up, a band performing at the Olympics from China was there. They rocked some E L O 14 person band deal and some cool electrodrums. There was a DJ (represent - just needed a beat boxer and they would have had almost everything.) Julliard music school broke the fast paced beats with some composed weirdness. There was African drumming, awesome Korean drumming (the group from earlier really put on a show!) Another girl saw me and Jesse busting out fire spinning and she had her glow balls with her. She was from Australia and I desperately wanted to spin fire with her. I miss it, especially with such driving rhythms. I didn't take my camera out much. I was happy dancing and talking. But I do want a costume like this:




Also the awesomest guy in the history of awesome came on pretty late and stunned me. First playing with 3 drum sticks in each hand with crazy rhythms and a wall of sound from 1 guy. He was playing the drums with his long hair too! Then he did fire spinning drumming! That girl already left - she would have been so happy. Then rocked it on this awesome hammered string instrument: (I hope the video works - it is crapquality but you can tell) he also played some drums with mad water as a finale. It was so good. A group from England went on after him. They were also cool but no one wants to go after this guy.



{video not working yet - sorry}




On a completely unrelated not, Seoul has a lot of these 'punch-this-thing' games. The first one I tried (and most of the ones by my house,) is called 'Girl Fighter.' They also have soccer 'kick-this-thing' games.

Renae punches the living stuffing out of a bag...






!!!! Amber got THE HIGH SCORE!!!!!! Holy Moley!!!! There are people who have been punching this thing for years and she rocked all of them! She put me and all of the Koreans at the batting cage to shame! Oh yea, there are just batting cages randomly outside some places.


Awesome Amber!

The United States is a Clown Named Big Head

This is what I looked like on actual Chuseok Day. Renae and I went to the amusement park in Seoul called Lotte World because it would be less crowded on the family gathering oriented holiday. There were still some lines, but from what I hear they were not comparable to the unbearable waits on some busier dates.

They rock Oktoberfest in Korea depending on where you are.


It is 'the thing' at Lotte World to where ears on your head. We didn't go on one of the only rides we waited in line for because we had an appointment time set up for another roller coaster before we got to ride. The other roller coaster was way cooler; "The French Revolution!" It was indoors and we did a loop over and around people on a walkway.

I took a picture of the picture the camera took of me on the coaster. This is, of course, strictly prohibited, but I pleaded ignorance and got a two photos off before they stopped me. This picture is slightly better than the last. I am still messing around with the camera a lot. The bitch is, sometimes, there's no time to adjust settings.

This is about 1/3 of the amusement park. It is muti-leveled inside and there is a large island outside.

They have a magic castle too.


Again, not a great picture, but I was on an escalator and didn't want to go all the way back up and down again. They have countries from around the world represented with their flags and a cartoon character. The United States is a clown named Big Head. All the other countries were pretty dignified in comparison; the Big Head stands alone.

I spent the last hour of my time at Lotte World at a crane game trying to win a stuffed animal. The crane games suck here but I thought I might get lucky. Well on Renae's go at it, the machine malfunctioned and gave us infinite turns. We tried every animal in the cage. One was moving so we tried to edge it towards the hole. We did this for about an hour, then it was time for Lotte World to close and we were very hungry. I have never been so frustrated in my life. I know that I have not learned my lesson and still will try at these impossible crane games until a miracle happens. I will keep you posted...



We had off the day after Chuseok also. It was a Wednesday that felt like 3 Sundays combined. Winding down from a looooong weekend, Renae and I went out for a relaxing day and ended our Chuseok at a jazz club called Once in a Blue Moon. It was the perfect ending for the busy break.

This was in a really high class area. I saw some street art outside of an Armani store. There are a lot of designer stores and high class automobile retailers there. I am not sure if it is an advertisement or a satire but the stencil has a registered "r" on it:



Also in the area was the world's largest tribute to something a few of us at Rutgers invented known as the "1-up." I post these pictures for their pleasure.


Also I found a place to invest all the money I make while I am here:

With a name like that, how could I go wrong? Maybe one day, just for fun...



Updates on other things since then:


Mad for Garlic is a restaurant that has nothing but amazing garlic dishes! Everything was so good. Also the walls are decorated in garlic. There was even a wreath of garlic!

...and ice in their toilets??!



Blue lights are serious.


A creepy outside of a restaurant:




In this version of dodge ball, apparently the opposing team gets to have some people surrounding the other team! Awesome!

When I rule the world this will be the flag:

The Earth will be called Crazy Pepper and everyone will eat awesome spicy food.



A mega crowded hip-hop club.

A not-so-crowded hip-hop club next door to the crowded one.



This picture is from Renae's window. A woman dries peppers on her roof. When I walk down the street there are people who just lay them out on the side of the road. I wouldn't know what to do with so many. Some people do; there is an amazing condiment here: red pepper paste. I love it. I can't get enough of it. It is my wildest flavonoid's dreams come true.

I am gonna go get me some of that pepper paste. Next time I will update all of you on the international drum festival they had here a couple of weeks ago and more!

Anti-Calculus Toothpaste

It is no surprise that when I was in the store today, I saw "Anti-Calculus" toothpaste. I wish I had a camera, but you get the idea. There are plenty of horrible translations, but I think this was someone who was just probably fed up with math, and working for a toothpaste company, where no one else would catch on.

While I was teaching some of my elementary students about time, we had to figure out how much time they go to school. From 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. for English class. And it doesn't end there! Afterwards it is time for piano class or violin lessons or learning how to play the ocarina (one of the kids is enrolled in classes for all three!) If I spent 12 hours at school when I was 10 years old... I might end up a little crazy too.

Recently I heard that Korea surpassed America for number of hours worked in a week or day, but thqat there production is still about one third of an average American. People basically just go to work to do normal life stuff, even sleep in some cases.

My job feels like it follows this ethic in someways. I am there but for three hours some days, I don't have to do anything! I have free periods. It is basically a 9:30-6:00 job but after dealing with the Hyatt, I might as well be lounging on the beach sipping some Mai Tais... or Chillin at a Hof sippin some Soju.

I am going to take pictures of work life tomorrow. One of my homeroom students celebrates his birthday tomorrow, which is a huuuuge deal in Korea. It is awesome for me, because I get to eat cake instead of teaching.

Yes, that is right, the 6 year olds I teach have homeroom, and switch classes every period; something I didn't do until High School, and it scared the crap out of me.

I am improving on my teaching skills in leaps and giddy skips.

My Hangugo (Korean language, I think) skills are still not that great, but I am now able to read almost everything around me, even though the words still don't mean much to me. I have the basics down now and it is becoming very natural for me, which feels comforting. I am ready to continue on the quest to learn this language, even if it will only be applicable for only 11 more months of my entire life.

On top of my language studies and work, my perpetual attempts at furthering my art in music and writing continue. I have been staying away from the computer and sticking to cassette and paper. The TV has only been a distraction twice so far, although I may be able to count my Korean television show watching in the category of learning the language. I met a guy here who was well into chopping down the language barrier and he recommended watching Taxi Driver and Friends in Korean repeatedly, he was, however, also an ass and I don't want to take his advice.

Overlapping and in between, I have been experiencing Seoul and the Republic of Korea. It is expandingly interesting here. There is so much to take in and be a part of, it follows that when I speak of it, my time here will sound like a long vacation. Even sometimes I feel as though this blog may be one long, boring, vacation slide photo session. On the contrary, I am doing my best to live life to the fullest. Maybe life should just feel like a long vacation. Some of you reading this will think "I wish" but even vacations have their drawbacks. Maybe in life, those drawbacks are just drawn out sometimes too.

Here are some of the life I have been living:


Renae and I were walking around here area and there was a small dirt road between two buildings. We took the trail and it lead us away from the cars and the buildings. It is nice to get away into nature, even if it is just an island of it, in the middle of a super sized metropolis. I like taking pictures of bugs. I am on a bridge, a straight overpass, suspended over a six lane road, but it is built for more than walking. There are beautiful bushes surrounding a winding path that makes you feel like you didn't just step out of the woods; that the road below you is a mirage and when you continue forward into the thicker forest, the sound of the cars disappears back into your imagination.


Chuseok is a thanksgiving holiday. It happens on the full moon in September. It was on a Tuesday this year. Most jobs were off for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Some people get off the whole week. Family's gather to pray for and to recent ancestors and to share thanks. There are a lot fo tradition games that I was in charge of doing with all the classes. I didn't know about any of them... except for Chiki Chagi! I impressed everyone at the school, including the teachers, with my Chiki Chagi skills. (Little did they know that I had been practicing for years in America under the guise of Hacky-Sack! That was so cool. I felt like the Mac of Chuseok. In the picture above, Renae's Tae Kwon Do class was invited to Chuseok Dinner with their Master, Sun. I happily tagged along, and even though they were serving duck, there was another vegetarian and they made some extra-special dishes for us. We took a bus to the mountains. The bus was innovative and I have not seen one like it before. In Mexico, there was a stool in between the pilot seats of a van to fit more people. This van has two fold down seats in the isles; so cool:

After making some a great new friend and going to a bar with Renae's Tae Kwon Do instructor (who seems to hover around the same intensity with rockin' out that I do,) we decided to go to the Korean Traditional Village the next day.

On the entrance to a small village area.

This structure is a tribute to a Woman's fidelity after marriage.

An older gentleman relaxing by the river. No one lives at the village except for some animals and the Buddhist monks there.

and Korean scarecrows.


...cool statues and lame people who want to be like them.


On the way to the temple; lattic has never looked close to this cool.
I didn't take pictures near the temple out of respect. I feel some things have to be left out of my world in the age of digital information. I was humbled. I pictured monks rising at 3am to do their chores and prayers; the one whose job is to beat the drum, the other whose job it is to sweep... chilling. Awesome.

I have a series of this turtle coming out of its shell. I could not believe after I took the first picture, that its neck kept stretching further. The next shot is a catfish scaring it back into the shell. How long is the neck...? the world may never know.

Renae and I say 'Hi.' The folk village was quite nice. There are many other pictures and there is much to explain. I know I will be back someday, but the Korean teacher who recommended I go to this place during the holiday (less of a crowd) told me of another place, an actual folk village. I know these boots will take me there. I am not sure if they will bring me back.

I want to live in a small community growing peppers. I love peppers.

I hadn't charged my camera for a month in Korea. It died in the folk village. I was relieved.

The next day is Chuseok...
the adventure, told through the new and exciting medium of blog, will have to be serial.
I have to teach in the morning and it is getting late.

I hit my first little bought of homesickness a few days ago. I miss you all.